Meghalaya taps only 10.49% of its 3,000 MW hydro potential

Shillong, March 31 (IANS) Power-starved Meghalaya can harness only 10.49 per cent of its 3,000 MW hydro potential, a report said.

This has been blamed to the Meghalaya Power Generation Corporation Limited for the failure to prepare long-term plans incorporating projects to be implemented as per the Meghalaya Power Policy, 2007.

In its report for the year ending March 31, 2016, the Comptroller and Auditor-General (CAG) found that the failure to prioritise projects for implementation during 2011-16 resulted in the corporation taking up projects for survey and investigation/implementation on a random basis without proper justification for their selection.

"The corporation did not prepare any perspective plan or annual business plan to prioritise the projects for implementation and taking up pre-planning activities (conducting of the feasibility study, survey and investigation and the like)," the report stated.

Meghalaya has a hydroelectricity potential of 3,000 MW, which is about three per cent of the total hydel potential of the country. As in March 2016, the state had seven hydroelectric power stations in operation owned and operated by the corporation, the report said.

"The state could harness only 10.49 per cent of its hydro potential so far. As a result, Meghalaya has been a power-deficient state since 1990-91 and it has had to depend heavily on import of power from outside the state to meet its demand," the report revealed.

During the five-year period covering 2011-2012 to 2015-2016, the report stated that 38.23 per cent of the power consumed in the state was internally generated, 2.78 per cent was met from the state's share of free power from the central government's power generation utilities while the balance 58.99 per cent was purchased from outside the state.

The Meghalaya Power Policy, 2007, had envisaged commissioning of 24 projects during the Eleventh Plan (10 projects with capacity of 558.50MW) and Twelfth Plan (14 projects with capacity of 891 MW) periods.

Of the 24 projects, only 15 projects were to be completed by the corporation during the Eleventh Plan (nine projects with capacity of 528.5MW) and Twelfth Plan (six projects with capacity of 401 MW) periods, the report revealed.

To achieve the capacity addition as per the policy, the CAG recommended that the state energy corporation was required to formulate long-term perspective plans prioritising the projects for implementation in line with the policy.

It also needed to prepare annual action plans fixing stage-wise milestones for the projects to be taken up for implementation, capital outlay, funding pattern, target for completion, CAG added.

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